The Last Hope of Ryadd

Back to civilization. I can’t wait to hear the sweet sound of the town. Wheels bouncing over the cobblestone roads. Smiths hammering over the hot anvil. Hot food. Working bathrooms!

The way out of the, um, let’s call it a temple now… At least I think it will be a temple the next time we return. I hope the fine people here return it to its former glory. So, on the way out of the temple, our last encounter ended up with a group of kobolds in the room with all the drakes. The drakes were in their cages when we got there, and we quickly ran after the kobolds. When I say quickly ran, I literally mean it. Those sneaky little guys are fast. I bounded across the room swinging my sword at the ground. I can’t help but think what the others thought of me as I flailed about. I’d run to one side of the room, and the kobold would just turn around and run the other way. It reminded me of chasing young Anessathiel back in the village.

Liat obviously had more experience with it. She’d walk slowly to the kobold, but wouldn’t get very near. I almost thought that she didn’t want to fight. That was until she decided to smash it with her spear. I know, I know, spears are meant for stabbing. Liat just has a way about her to bring out the smash in everything, though.

After chasing the kobold around the room a few times, I was finally able to get some hits in. He was hurt and beaten, but then I saw an evil glimmer in his eyes. He made a dash towards the center of the room. I shouted out, “Get the guy in the middle.” I dove, trying to grab him, but it was too late. He pulled a lever and opened all the gates in the room; the drakes were now free.

After months of abuse, the drakes weren’t any more fond of their keepers than we were. They indiscriminatly lashed out at anything close to them. Light burst from my sword and sparked a haste within one of the drakes. It also made me invisible for long enough to set up our assault. A cloud of frost in the middle of the room kept the drakes contained. We finished them off and left the temple.

On the trek back home through the woods, D’nalia kept craving strange foods, and wouldn’t stop singing “who’s your little cylon?” I’m not really sure what that means, but I’m pretty sure that girl is going insane.

There we were in the hall of the dragon. He obviously didn’t want anything from us other than some cheap entertainment. Little did he know we weren’t his normal lot of casual “performers.”

We instantly broke apart and readied our weapons against the mobs of kobolds surrounding us. I somehow managed to take over sixty damage on the first two turns, almost knocking me out of the battle. Tarhan came to my aid and I was almost instantly back to full heath. It was probably four turns before I finally aid my friends with the “Wrath of the Gods.” Back in the fight, I started fighting kobolds. The dragon grabbed a quick snack (the tough kobold we met two days ago in the forge), then another quick kobold snack before washing it down and returning to his podium. We managed to kill the majority of the kobolds and I went to finish the last one off.

The dragon realized we meant business and came to fight us himself. Liat took the brunt of the damage while Ulric and Tarhan attacked just out of range of the tail, claws, and jaws of the massive dragon.. D’nalia came to help me finish off the last kobold and I turned to fight the dragon. With my Blessed Weapon in hand, I cast a spell at the dragon, but failed. I was slowed and couldn’t charge him. Since the dragon was still immobilized, he couldn’t flee. His end was drawing near.

Finally, the dragon escaped our trap and flew away. Swiftly, he fled to the other side of the throne room. D’nalia was the only one left who could catch him, and she cast her most powerful spell. The dragon erupted into flames and fell to the ground. We had defeated him.

There was a little bit of gold on the kobolds, but nothing else in the room or around the podium. There were two doors left to explore, but we needed to heal. We retreated to one of the secret rooms and rested. We came back and opened two giant stone doors. Behind them were mountains of treasure. There were piles taller than I was, and more coins than we could carry (without Liat’s bag of holding). I rushed into the room with ideas of the cities we could make, and the buildings we could build. I was attacked by a claw and a moving sarcophagus and fell to the floor (lucky shot). Tarhan picked me us, but Liat was consumed by a sarcophagus and I ran to save her. Suddenly, it was dark! I was trapped inside something, unable to move, and being pierced by spikes. I struggled to get out, but my armor prevented me from moving. I couldn’t hit anything with my sword because my arms were stuck. Finally, the object surrounding me collapsed. My friends spoke of walking claws and scarab hordes. They must have fought them as I struggled. Free from monsters, we gathered the rest of the treasure and were ready to go back home.

There was one passage remaining in this grand temple, we will explore it on the way out. Once we get home, we can tell people of this ancient temple and help them restore it to its once civilized grace. There was a nest of evil Eagles we needed to clear out of the rafters by the dragon’s entrance, but we cleaned them out no problem. Hopefully the Falcons outside won’t give us any trouble either. My interior decorated once suggested green and gold, that seems like a good color scheme for this extraordinary temple.

Not much to report today. We fought a few more groups of tough Kobolds and needed to rest again. We finally get to meet the dragon these kobolds have been following. I’m not sure that we’re going to come to any sort of agreement, and he’s got to be stopped. There are a lot of kobolds in the room waiting for us, I think he’s looking for a show.

D’nalia found a skull in the corner of the room. There was another riddle in draconic. The answer was to give the skull a kiss big enough that any master of dragons would blush. A door opened up revealing a hallway with another door at the end.

We entered the next room and saw nothing. There were six columns stretching to the ceiling, and debris littering the floor. We started searching the walls for a way out, when three phantasms attacked us. Liat spent some time phasing in and out of our plane, but defeated them without too much trouble. There’s nothing else interesting in the room. We found a hidden door and push it open to find another hallway and our exit.

We enter a room with three piles of rubble blocking our floor. I’m not sure what function the room has, but movement was difficult. There’s another kobold holding a cage of rats, so I charge him. Backing off, I got to the center to draw all of their fire. A timely spell from Tarhan gave the party resistance to most of the poison damage that would’ve otherwise killed us. No doubt, it helped us defeat the kobolds in this room. We end the battle with some good tactical formations and are ready for more action.

We start heading back through the hallways of the temple. We find a door with fire glowing underneath. We prepared for battle and burst through the doors to a forge. Tarhan fell immediately, but I was close enough to heal him. I blessed my weapon and entered battle. A few good area burst got rid of the two kobold hordes, but that didn’t stop D’nalia from shooting another acid arrow at the party. I’m still concerned with her ability to differentiate between a 2 meter tall, good-looking, fit, strong, well dressed half-elf paladin, versus a 1 meter tall ugly kobold. Luckily, this time, everyone in the party was able to jump out of the way. Pretty soon it was five against one. The remaining kobold was tough, though. He blinded the entire party. Unfortunately, we didn’t seem very evasive, because we were all able to hit him while blind. He retreated to safety and locked the door behind him. Obviously, this foe was not an ordinary kobold; we will be seeing him again. There wasn’t much for us in the forge, only kobold weapons. We decided to a safe house for rest.

After resting and going back through the trap, we found ourselves in an octagon room. We entered through the top of the map. What used to be a central hub for activity in this sanctuary has been defiled by these kobolds. The four statues in the corners were defaced. The beautiful domed skylight was broken and vines blocked the sunlight. The marble floor had been replaced by cracked clay tiles. The winged goblins waiting in ambush only made it worse.

The tiles were all meant to break open with traps underneath. I can speak firsthand to the pain when a spear shoots through your thigh and immobilizes you. Multiple people falling into the traps, we were able to dispatch all the kobolds, including one that tried to escape through the skylight. We exited the room through map left and connected to a new map.

We found the room the kobolds had shaded. There was a large slab of rock blocking the two entries; we don’t think the kobolds were strong enough to move it. Inside was a crypt with dragon architectural cues. There was a lone tomb in the middle of the room, ornate decorations around the walls, a chest at one end, and an iridescent reflecting pool at the other end. We estimated depth of the pool using a rope, and found it surprisingly deep. As expected, when we opened the chest, it triggered a trap. Two waiting creatures swam out of a door and rose from the reflecting pool. Liat was able to hold her breath as they dragged her underwater, but we were able to rescue her. If they had grabbed me, I would’ve surely drowned. We were exhausted and needed to sleep. I showed my respects to the body in the tomb, we took the items in the chest for safekeeping, and Rest for the night.

We’re in the kobold lair. This is gonna be fun! This is gonna be fun! Just watch out for those spiders. I’m not sure why, but spiders scare me. Do you ever find yourself in a room just relaxing and doing something really pleasant? I remember one time a few years ago. I was enjoying a cold beverage while watching my local town delegate give a speech. He was standing through his window while addressing the Central Station Public Affairs Network (CSPAN). I can’t think of a better way to spend an afternoon. Then, suddenly, a spider crept down beside me. I was taken aback by his silent descent. I swiftly swatted at that same sullen spider, and with a short swoosh, sent him spiraling straight to the second story sans sound. Once on the ground, he continues to taunt me. Over and over again, I’d try to crush him under my massive foot. He simply jumps to the air, looking at me. I can’t seem to get him. We both know, if he gets out alive, he will summon his friends to attack me while I sleep. They’ll surround me and…

I digress.

I found something that scares me more than spiders. After dispatching a group of kobolds, we found a symbol on the wall with a riddle written in draconic underneath. We quickly realized the answer was “fire” and stood back while we held a live flame up to the symbol. It went to a secret passage way with a room containing RUST monsters! It was dreadfully terrible. After seeing a few other pieces of weaponry crumble into dust, I made my retreat. I lost a few of my backup weapons and threw a few punches before retreating to the back line. My shiny plate armor would look terrible as a pile of rust on the ground. A pool of acid created a nice little barrier between us and the rust monsters. Tarhan lost his scale armor, so we gave him a spare piece of cloth armor. Liat also lost her sword of asskickery. I even helped her scoop every little last bit of residuum off the floor, all the while feeling happy that it didn’t happen to my shiny armor.

We rested and continued exploring. A single fireball cleared out a room of not so sneaky kobolds waiting in ambush. One particular kobold kept teleporting around and took a while to corner. We finally got him right before he made over a blade trap. It took a while to get ourselves over the blade trap, but eventually Denalia made us all glow brightly enough to avoid the trigger.

We now have three map pieces, but don’t know how they connect. Through this next door should confirm the placement of our second map piece.

Today, in the kobold stronghold, we lost a dear member of our group. The Deathstalker Broadsword, known as Stalky to its friends, was destroyed by a rust monster during a long battle. It leaves behind its sibling weapon, the Lifedrinker Longspear (“Drinky”), and its owner, Liat Robach, along with a boatload of residuum.

O! Stalky, dear friend and weapon,
You will be missed.
You were the bane of many a kobold and goblin,
And many other things that needed to be hit.
While you weren’t the most constant of weapons,
You made your mark known when you did hit.
Drinky will be sad to be all alone,
But happy that it gets to be used again.
With luck, the residuum will be enough to get you back,
Or one that’s just like you,
But with a different hilt or something.

Remember a long time ago, back when I was in knight school? The giants and orcs were a feared foe that would frequently threaten our town, and I wanted every advantage I could get with them. I thought that reasoning with the might be enough to bring them from their ways of savagery into a more civilized environment. To appeal to their sense of pride, I wanted to be able to do this in their native language, giant. Years were spent learning how to speak and write in their language.

Many of the townsfolk knew other languages: elven, draconic, goblin, and kobold among others. Kobold, now that’s a language no one would ever need to know. Who would ever get anything useful from a kobold? They wait for ambushes, set traps, and just plain play dirty. Beyond that, and I haven’t yet even begun to describe their smell to you.

Why then, was I so scared of them this morning. We spent hours trying to come up with plans to divide and conquer their. We thought their sheer numbers would be enough to overrun us. If there really is a dragon in there, I can just picture him laughing. “Hahaha, look at the weak adventuring party cowering in the face of my three foot tall kobolds.”

Eventually, we decided to quit being babies and just brought the fight to their front door. We stood at the edge of the clearing and started pelting them with our artillery (I mean Ulric). Liat, of course, ran out in front to go hit things. The rest of the team supported as we made our way through the guards, and then through a second wave of reinforcements.

Honestly, our biggest threat was D’nalia. If I was to try to describe her, I’d say she’s got a good heart, but is a little chaotic on the inside. I know it’s impossible for such a combination to exist, but she’s somehow an amalgam of both. In the end, I’m still glad she’s on our side. While the splash damage of stray acid arrows really hurts, a well placed fireball hurts more.

Appendix A: Our Brilliant Plan:
1) Get bait
Ulric went hunting for some kobold bait. After a couple hours, he caught a rabbit. Since kobolds will eat anything, the rabbit would serve as a tasty piece of meat for the kobolds to eat.

2) Set bait
Kobolds will definitely go to the rabbit, but where to next? Without any real trap building time, or skills, we could use the bait as a lure. We wanted to set it on the trail at the edge of the clearing where the scouting would see it.

3) Use bait to lure kobolds
No traps mean we have to create a location of tactical advantage. In other words, let’s bring the kobolds to us. The only place of tactical advantage was a few minutes back on the trail; we needed a moving lure.

4) Run
Take the fastest runner, and tie a rope to their waist. The other end of the rope is tied to the rabbit. As the kobolds come near, drag the rabbit towards the battleground. They’ll follow you all the way there. Once there, the whole party will be ready for battle. Right guys? Right guys?

5) Fight
Without any way to get more reinforcements, and with a tactical advantage, the kobolds will be easy targets.

5) Loot the bodies
The little three foot bodies.

6) Repeat with the next set of kobold guards. Since we think it will work so well the first time, there’s no reason the exact same plan won’t work 327 additional times and clean out the entire kobold lair.

sleep, acid arrow

Ever since that narrow-minded human,Lewis Arden, took hold of me and held me in his house, something has gone amiss in my spell casting. First I tried to cast sleep on Lewis Arden but ended up almost sending everyone else to sleep instead. I was not myself, and I think it must have been the bindings and darkness.

But then it happened again against the kobolds outside their hill fortress. I cast acid arrow against a particularly strong kobold in range and hit him very well, but the secondary effect nearly killed Liat Robach. I seemed to be completely oblivious to the side effects! I fear I am making my party nervous, and there’s enough mistrust in this land against non-humans like myself.

What am I to do? What if I lose my sense of self and hard earned control that’s necessary to wizards. I’m beginning to think this land is cursed. I may need to seek out the elves of Luthien in order to find the answers I am looking for. Perhaps they have something to protect me.

Lewis wasn’t very talkative. Maybe I was all wrong about him. I didn’t even ask him for his autograph, it didn’t seem worth it. He’s got a thing against elves that I can’t seem to explain. Not the sort of evil master plan, “hahaha, I’ll be your doom” type of thing, but just a plain mean guy type of thing. We thought it’d be a bad idea to just let him off the hook for capturing D’nalia, so we decided to take him to Commander Robert Londo. Our little group of outsiders wouldn’t look so good prancing through the streets with the mighty guild master in shackles, so we decided to stuff him in a rug and carry him in the back of a coach.

We got to Londo and he agreed that Lewis had wronged us. He agreed to take Lewis from us for punishment. I’m pretty sure Londo wanted Lewis’ autograph, though, because he kept looking at Lewis’ hand and matching them up with some paper.

Londo told us that the goblins and kobalds have been warring, and the kobalds were winning. Without a balance of power keeping each group in check, he feared the kobalds would be victorious against the goblins and start looking for new targets, like Farhaven. Until now, they have restricted themselves to attacking traveling caravans between Farhaven and the nearest towns. A direct kobald attack on Farhaven would be terrible for the town, and needed to be stopped before it happened.

The girls went shopping, and shopping, and shopping. Maybe someday the rumors will come true that all of our shopping can be done from the comfort of our own home, with access to every type of good, all carried right to our door. They call this place, the Amazon.

The five of us set out along the path in our newly acquired coach (care of Lewis). I was enjoying the ride (roll, roll, roll in the hay) until we saw the silhouette of a dragon pass by the moon. There were rumors of a dragon in this area, though I didn’t really believe it. Luckily, it didn’t seem to see us. We continued down the road until Ulric started shouting. He had found a path; kobalds were near. The path went in the same direction as the dragon…

We had a choice to make. Either follow the path to the kobalds, or seek out the goblins. While not particularly fond of the choice (stupid democracy), working together was the only way to succeed. We followed the path until we finally came to a clearing. Behind a small alcove, was a small goblin ambush party. What luck, we can finally recruit the goblins to lead us into battle with the kobalds. What luck I say. Wait a minute, Ulric is shooting at them. That’s no way to treat a meat shield. Wait a minute, they’re shooting back. I really wish I spoke goblin. “Kill the kobalds” I’d say. “Don’t kill me, I’m on your side.”

Well that didn’t work so well. Those goblins really beat us up. Even worse, a kobald raiding party came through the clearing while we were battling the goblins. It became a wicked three way with no where to run, and no way to gain any tactical advantage. The kobalds used swarm tactics to trample us, and heavy poisons. If not for the help of the cleric’s standard, we would’ve been in serious trouble. Luckily, it felt as though I had stone skin. Nothing they could do to us hurt very much. In the end, there were five of us, and none of them.

The cleric bandaged all of our wounds and we rested for the night. It was a fairly uneventful night watch. We continued exploring. Further down the path, we saw a great hill in the middle of a giant clearing one mile in diameter. There were kobald guards at the entrance, and two scouting parties circling the vegetation boundary. None of us really knew what typical kobald dwellings were, but we all thought this was a bit too organized for kobalds. We wanted to see what was on the other side of the hill. Ulric and Liat went to scout ahead while the rest of us sat back. Yup, we sent our fighter who just likes to hit things on a scouting mission.

Not surprisingly, Ulric and Liat got into a brawl with one of the kobald scouting parties. They took heavy damage and needed to dress their wounds. They explained that there was a large entrance on the opposite side of the hill. The dragon was surely working with the kobalds. We’re not quite sure what to do right now, because we seem underpowered in a fight against so many enemies.

Varis

I got to Farhaven today and the festival was in full vigor. I was starving and couldn’t wait to find something to eat. It was then I heard a large crowd. The games had started! I ran over and saw the archery competition. Now, if you as me, propelling little sticks at a circular target isn’t much of a game. Either that or I shouldn’t have slept through the archery classes back at the academy.

Some guy named Ulric ended up winning the competition, I ended up meeting him later.. He was a ranger, of course. Following the archery, though was a real competition. The sound of hooves beating against the ground! Mounted combat and the clash of shields! Jousting had begun! I entered the contest and knocked off my first two opponents. Every pass I made, it seemed like I hit them perfectly, or completely missed. It went on like this for a while; perfect hit, perfect hit, miss, miss, miss. I even dropped the lance a few times on accident. The third person I fought was really good and he knocked me off before I could finish him. It was so much fun, that I couldn’t wait to try it again. Hopefully they have it next year at the festival.

Defeated, I watched the other jousting contestants. There was a fighter named Liat that was paired against Lewis right after me. She did alright, but Lewis was really good. Someday I’ll be able to joust like him. Anyway, she go knocked off and started crying like a baby. “Heal me, heal me.” Her cleric friend wasn’t in sight, so I used my healing powers to stop her from complaining. We had a few beers, and I can’t remember the next few hours. I seem to recall arm wrestling. There was also something about a cow…

While still with Liat, she received a letter from a small boy. We were joined by the ranger, Ulric, and a cleric. They had all come on that large orc ship visible from port. One of their party had been captured. The instructions were to meet at the northern gates by sunset. They did some last minute weapons shopping and then head to the gates. With the enticement of adventure, they urged me to join them in their search. We went to the gates and were met by a clocked figure. He told us to down the road for two days and then wait for further instruction. Then he disappeared. Really, he disappeared! He threw his clock around him, and then, poof, he was gone. I looked for him in hopes that I could see it again, that was so cool!

The cleric suspected Lewis, the guild master. They had already received other letters they tied to Lewis and the handwriting looked similar. Instead of traveling down the path into the primitive wilderness, we decided to stay in civilization. Lewis was our first suspect and his house was not hard to find. Since Lewis would already recognize the rest of the party, I decided to do some reconnaissance on my own. I went to the front door and invited myself in. My only interaction was with a scrawny little attendant. I got the feeling that everyone in the house was uneasy with my presence, almost as if they were trying to keep a secret. There were also more people around than there should’ve been if Lewis had really turned in for the night. I didn’t find D’nalia and didn’t get Lewis’ autograph. Actually, I couldn’t get much more information than the basic layout of the inside. As I mad my exit through the front door, I was followed by two crossbow wielding patrol guards.

It was time for more exploring, this time in stealth. I put my plate mail back on just because it looks so gosh darn good on me. Apparently one of the guards thought so, too, because he couldn’t stop staring at me. Liat and Ulric circled the property looking for a way in. I think they found a back door, dispatched some more guards, and rescued their wizard friend, D’nalia before making their exit. Ulric carried D’nalia back to the cleric for healing while Liat knocked out one of the two guards. Liat made her way back around to the front and started the guard watching me. He pointed the crossbow at her and again she started pleading. Really, this has got to be the wussiest fighter I’ve ever seen. I ran from my chair and knocked out the guard.

We regrouped, healed, and entered through the back door Ulric and Liat had used. We fought more guards inside, including the attendant rogue I had met earlier. There was also a wizard with a neat teleportation spell that triggered when we got adjacent to him.

*Note to self, buy a throwing hammer or a glaive.

Finally we got to Lewis’ cambers. It was a long fight. I think most of the party got bored, because half way through, they all fell asleep. That’s the first I’ve ever seen the a group take a nap in the middle of a fight. We knocked Lewis out and disarmed him. He’s tied up in the other room right now and we’re going to question him. I still want his autograph.

I am so glad we got out of that ice palace…thing. I’m still a little irritated that the rest of them wouldn’t let me just knock the door down, but I guess there’s probably a reason why they wanted to work out the puzzle thing. Whatever. There were plenty of snowmen things to hit. That was fun. I’m glad to be back in the city, though, and find out where we’re going next. Maybe someplace warmer, so we can thaw out?

D'nalia's Travel Journal

I just finished trancing while my comrades enjoy a well-deserved extended rest. Although enjoy is a loose term, its quite cold in this ice castle. We were sent to this tower from Luthien to find the source of this unseasonable winter and are searching out the dwarf, Draigdurroch, believed to be the source of this problem. So far we have defeated a goblin horde, the statues that came to life, and the snowman brigade from the Realm of Chaos. Its been a very long day. Corellon only knows what we face deeper in this large block of ice. All I know is that there's lots of magic involved.

After we came to Farhaven we decided to venture to the market so D’nalia could get ritual components in hopes of deciphering the goblin_letter. In the market Tarhan seemed unimpressed with the offerings of holy symbols, but he was broke anyway. He also tried to apprehend a theif; tried being the key word. I think he and Liet ended up on the ground after attempting to tackle the thief. The thief got away and entered a building near the market. Across the alley was a door to the Lil’ Drag Inn and Bottling Company.

The Lil’ Drag Inn had a sign with a pink dragon on it. We entered and ended up in a limp-wristed establishment. Tarhan didn’t seem to comprehend what was going on and looked a little worried when the bearded dwarf in a dress tried to serenade him. We quickly exited and tried several ways to enter the other building where the thief had hid. After several unsuccessful attempts and not wanting to break the door down after hearing weapons being unsheathed, we noticed the Lil’ Drag Inn had windows in the second story that overlooked the alley. We went back and got a room. The room was luxurious; it even had running hot water for the bath. We spent the night and kept an eye on the alley. D’nalia was able to translate the goblin_letter.

Later that night we saw five hooded people exit the door head out the alley. We waited to see if they were coming back, but they did not. When the rooster starting announcing day break we decided to break in the front door. Liet broke down the door and Tarhan went to the market for sawdust. Liet, D’nalia and I went in and invesigated. The first floor was empty, but we found some letters in the second floor in what appeared to be a study. They said:

Albine,

We must approach this on two fronts:

1) Find more that are sympathetic to our cause and convince them to join us

2) The City Watchmen who are neutral to the cause need to put in our employ so we will have their support when the time comes

Neil Dewars

Albine,

The Blacksmith from the First Ward and the Jeweler from Farharven City have been doing quite well lately and can weather some misfortune. Besides, they do not support our cause…

Neil Dewars

When we left the building Tarhan was just finishing up fixing the door so it looked as neglected as it was before Liet busted it down. We tried to see if we could find any leads at the Blacksmith and Jeweler, but only saw crime scenes with City Watchmen investigating. We found no leads.

We were informed that the elven family we previously saved requested us as an escort back to Luthien before the Goblin and Kobolds became more hostile. We met them at the Wayward Tavern and headed off towards Luthien.

On our way we encountered a group of Kobolds. We dispatched them and Tarhan took their weapons. As we approached Luthien we noticed a chill breeze that seemed unseasonable. We then encountered a group of wolves; one had bluish fur. They were hungry and attacked us. We overcame them and led the elven family and caravan back to Luthien unharmed.

When we arrived at Luthien the civic leader Lady Moonfire greeted us and mentioned the problems they were facing with the cold weather; if it persisted their crops and food supply were in jeopardy. We agreed to look into it and she suggested the wizard Curavar might have some more insight for us. Curavar told us of a group of dwarves that came through Luthien 30 years prior. They were secretive and constructed a tower near the dire wood; which was about a days travel away. D’naila was able to get a potion from Curavar to help us in this quest.

After going to the local market to buy winter clothing we headed out with the directions they gave us. We soon entered a blizzard and found it very difficult to find our way to the tower. We finally found our way out of the blizzard and we suddenly felt much more seasoned. Then I wrote this.